One species of shark made history today at the close of the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission’s annual meeting of governments that share a practical and financial interest in fish stocks in the region. The oceanic whitetip, an open-ocean species with a distinctive white tip on its dorsal fin, became the most comprehensively protected shark on the planet.

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Members of Pew's global shark conservation team traveled to Bangkok, Thailand in March for the 2013 meeting of delegates to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, or CITES. In these dispatches, Elizabeth Wilson writes about the importance of the meeting and what success means for sharks around the world.

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(Agence France-Presse) The government of the Pacific paradise of New Caledonia said Wednesday it had decided to ban fishing of sharks, which are being decimated to feed growing demand for luxury goods.

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Josh Reichert, executive vice president of The Pew Charitable Trusts, issued the following statement today in response to New Caledonia’s announcement of comprehensive and permanent shark protections in its waters.

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